Morgan Stanley Said to Reload LNG Tanker in Spain for Japan

July 19 (Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley is loading a
liquefied natural gas carrier in Spain for export to Japan, two
people with knowledge of the matter said.

The LNG Swift tanker is headed for Tokyo Gas Co.’s import
terminal at Sodegaura in Chiba prefecture, the country’s largest,
one of the people said, who declined to be identified because
the information isn’t public. The other person said the buyer
was a Japanese utility.

A tanker is due to load 125,000 cubic meters of LNG at
Cartagena in southeast Spain from today through July 22,
according to the website of Enagas SA, Spain’s gas-network
operator. The company didn’t provide the vessel’s name. The LNG
Swift, with a capacity of 127,580 cubic meters, arrived at
Cartagena today, IHS Inc. data on Bloomberg show.

LNG fell for a seventh week to $14 a million British
thermal units, according to World Gas Intelligence’s latest
assessment published yesterday. Prices for delivery to
Northeast Asia in four to eight weeks reached a three-year high
of $18.40 a million Btu on May 28, according to WGI. That was
the highest in more than three years.

Japan, the world’s biggest market for LNG, purchased a
record 83.18 million metric tons from overseas in the fiscal
year ended March, up 18 percent from the previous 12 months, the
finance ministry said in April. That followed the closure of its
nuclear power stations in the wake of meltdowns at the Fukushima
Dai-Ichi plant in March 2011.

$41 Million

Morgan Stanley’s cargo is worth more than $41 million at
current Asian spot prices, according to Bloomberg calculations.
Hugh Fraser, a spokesman for the bank in London, declined to
comment when reached by phone today.

Spain is prioritizing its domestic coal industry over gas
for power generation. Combined with weaker fuel demand because
of the economic crisis, the country is oversupplied with gas,
stimulating re-exports of previously-imported gas from storage
tanks at terminals.

Sixteen LNG cargoes were re-exported from Spanish terminals
last year, according to data from Paris-based lobby group
International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers, known as
GIIGNL.